Coercive isomorphism

About: Coercive isomorphism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 133 publications have been published within this topic receiving 68309 citations.

The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective

Abstract: Among the most widely cited books in the social sciences, The External Control of Organizations has long been required reading for any student of organization studies. The book, reissued on its 25th anniversary as part of the Stanford Business Classics series, includes a new preface written by Jeffrey Pfeffer, which examines the legacy of this influential work in current research and its relationship to other theories.The External Control of Organizations explores how external constraints affect organizations and provides insights for designing and managing organizations to mitigate these constraints. All organizations are dependent on the environment for their survival. As the authors contend, "it is the fact of the organization's dependence on the environment that makes the external constraint and control of organizational behavior both possible and almost inevitable." Organizations can either try to change their environments through political means or form interorganizational relationships to control or absorb uncertainty. This seminal book established the resource dependence approach that has informed so many other important organization theories.

Institutions and Organizations

Abstract: Introduction Early Institutionalists Institutional Theory and Organizations Constructing an Analytic Framework I Three Pillars of Institutions Constructing an Analytic Framework II Content, Agency, Carriers and Levels Institutional Construction, Maintenance and Diffusion Institutional Processes Affecting Societal Systems, Organizational Fields, and Organizational Populations Institutional Processes Affecting Organizational Structure and Performance Institutional Change Looking Back, Looking Forward

The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields

Abstract: Instead of examining why organizations are dissimilar, this study explores why organizations tend to be increasingly and inevitably homogenous in their forms and practices. Organizations in a similar line of work are structured into an organizational field by powerful forces that lead them to become similar. Rather than the causes of rationalization and bureaucratization suggested by Max Weber, including competition and the need for efficiency, institutional similarity is due to the structuration of organizational fields, a process caused largely by the state and the professions, which are the great rationalizers of the late 20th century. In highly structured organizational fields, rational efforts of individuals aggregately lead to structural, cultural, and output homogeneity. Homogenization is best captured by the concept of isomorphism, the process whereby one element in a population resembles others that confront the same environmental conditions. The two types of isomorphism are competitive and institutional. Three processes lead to organizational similarity: (1) coercive isomorphism stemming from political influence and the problem of legitimacy; (2) mimetic isomorphism resulting from uniform responses to uncertainty; and (3) normative isomorphism associated with professionalism. While these isomorphic processes improve organizational transactions, they do not necessarily increase internal efficiency. Twelve hypotheses are offered for further research about which organizational fields will be most homogenous. These hypotheses relate the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalism and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, useful implications of the study for theories of organizations and social change are offered. (TNM)